BalticMuseums 2.0 – co-operation of oceanographic museums in the South Baltic Region

In the BalticMuseums 2.0 project the consortium of six partners from Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Russia will jointly develop innovative technical information and communication tools for oceanographic museums. The project duration is projected being three years starting in October 2008. The European co-financing of almost a million Euro was granted in July 2008.

The consortium of two universities and four oceanographic museums will design and realise a joint multi-lingual online platform as well as ticketing system. Furthermore developments for the future oriented visitor guidance an information systems are planned. With the intended results of the project the attractiveness of the museums will be increased, especially for international tourists. As the partner museums are a main touristic attraction in their respective region, the project will contribute to the economic development in that area.

Tourism information products for oceanographic museums

Target of the project BalticMuseums 2.0 is the joint development of cross-border tourism information products by South Baltic oceanographic museums. The natural heritage stored in the oceanographic museums shall be promoted and used efficiently by cross-border tourism information tools, thus the attractiveness especially for international tourists and competitiveness will be increased. The information offer of the museums shall be enlarged by different, cross-country tools, that are jointly used and updated by oceanographic museums in the South Baltic region. An online platform about the museums to present themselves in a joint presentation including tourism offers in the region will be implemented and actively used by the world public due to multi-lingual appearance. An online ticket system will be in use - either on the individual museum websites or on a central domain. A prototype of a state of the art, multilingual visitor guidance system will be developed. In the course of the project, opportunities for a tighter cross-border co-operation will be defined. Information about the museums and their joint activities will be widely available and distributed.

The structure of the BalticMuseums 2.0 project

The project will consist of five components. Next to project management and communication, three components will be dedicated to the joint creation of a cross-border tourism information product each. They are based on one another and the main focus is on multi-linguality and on efficiency due to joint efforts.

Component 3: Online Information Portal attracs more tourists due to multi-lingual offerand a broad information basis on the museums and the cities, cross-sellingeffects between the museums can occur.

Component 4: Online Ticketing Tool makes the museums more accessible locally and abroad,hotels and traves agencies can book online which will result in morevisitors to the museums and the cities.

Component 5: Visitor Guidance System will be an attraction on itself, which fascinates abroad audience and attracts a larger target group, also in the future.

Outputs and results foreseen for the project

The project shall lead to following online tourism information products:

Online Information Platform (considering web 2.0 techniques) about the museums and the project, plus additional information about the Baltic Sea as an ecosystem and about the regions's tourism offers. The plattform shall be multilingual in all languages represented in the partner countries plus English and Chinese, to open the information up to international tourists. It will employ Web 2.0 technologies for user generated content.

Online Ticketing Tool that can be applied in the websites of the museums, the joint online platform and with external partners e.g. hotels, tourism boards. All languages of the South Balitc Region plus English shall be available.

Visitor Guidance System as a prototype of a state of the art, multilingual visitor guidance system. It shall make use of modern, future oriented media and combine all needs (e.g. information, education, entertainment, merchandising). The system shall help make the museums more attractive even in the future and solve language barriers. All languages of the South Baltic plus English shall be available.

The results and impact of the project are foreseen as a strengthening of positioning of the partners by marketing and PR activities of the partners thus increasing the visitor numbers in the museums. Further investments and co-operation projects shall result from the project. The co-operation network shall be strengthened, from a starting point of loose contacts among the museums to long-therm co-operation agreements between partners. The network shall be broadened by an information group and further museums asked for their input and potential later participation.